# What is AI-literacy? There are those who build AI systems and those who use them. Which group is AI literate? Perhaps there are degrees. Personally, being partially in both groups at the same time, I consider AI literacy to be the ability to: - Understand AI systems  - Use AI systems - Evaluate AI systems - Evaluate the impacts of AI systems While end users can, with practice, use and evaluate the impacts of AI systems, they’re unlikely to have the expertise required to understand the systems themselves and, by extension, cannot evaluate them. For example, let's evaluate a fictional, relatively well-established solar company. It provides customers with quotes, handles solar panel installation, and provides maintenance. A typical solar company with these abilities has many, many diverse teams of people. They have salesmen walking door-to-door and marketers running paid ads. They have several types of engineers working on the company website, or customer apps to track savings, or machine learning powered rooftop detection for accurate and fast quotes. They have electrical and mechanical engineers installing and repairing the panels, with project managers ensuring installations get done on time and customer support managers that ensure they follow through on their promises. They have book keepers and accountants to manage budgets and financial reporting, and maybe even lawyers to handle contracts and ensure compliance. And don't forget HR. While every team within the business can learn how to use and evaluate the impacts of AI systems in their unique role, where needed and technically feasible, it's only software engineers, math majors, and similarly inclined individuals within the I.T. department who are capable of AI-literacy in the purest sense. Within the I.T. department, software engineers are split between front-end design, back-end development, system security, and much more. Only few will have a machine learning specialization. I want a more nuanced and robust definition of AI literacy. For product, sales, marketing, and every other team within the business outside of I.T.'s ML engineers, AI literacy could be defined as the ability to use and evaluate the impacts of AI systems. If everyone across the org has this shared understanding, businesses are less likely to waste time chasing AI for it's own sake and more likely to improve operations and culture.